A Man Without Breath: A Bernie Gunther Novel by Philip Kerr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this installment of the Bernie Gunther saga we are taken to Smolensk shortly after the German defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943. Bernie, though still in the SD, is working for the Wehrmacht’s War Crimes investigation unit and is looking into the mass graves found in Katyn Wood outside of Smolensk. The propaganda advantage of exposing a Soviet massacre of Polish officers has interested Dr Goebbels among others. Bernie must oversee the official investigation, but there are other, more recent, murders which Bernie must solve before he becomes a victim as well. Along the way we come across Field Marshal von Kluge, Admiral Canaris and several attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
In my opinion this is one of the better books in the series. Although I had pretty much figured out the bad guy, the actual conclusion was kind of surprising. A very entertaining read. I do have one nit to pick: in my edition it is mentioned twice that Kursk is north of Smolensk when in fact is lies to the south.